ST. JOHN FINANCE COUNCIL

MEETING OF FEBRUARY 17, 2004

 

Members in attendance: Bruce Tincher, John Durbin, Paula Englert, Gerald Neihoff

Also in attendance was Principal Margie Blecher.

 

Margie gave a school report.  There are at least 71 students expected to pre-enroll for next year.  This is before opening registration to the public.  Margie did not have any new fundraising amounts to report.  Because of the larger 3rd and 4th grade classes moving up to 4th and 5th grade, the school may need to hire another ˝ time teacher to ensure quality of math and science classes.  The proposed increases to tuition and fees were approved by the school board last month.  Margie will have tentative enrollment figures and a rough budget for 2004-05 prior to the next Committee meeting.

 

Margie left the meeting.

 

John distributed the balance sheet and income statements for July 1 through December 31st with a comparision to budget.  He also distributed the January 31, 2004 financial reports.  Overall we are slightly ahead of budget (about $2,800) through six months.  This amount includes net operations of the school (which is “behind” on fundraising because of the timing of major fundraising events).  A six month summary of the parish income and expenses and the last full fiscal year will be made available to the general parish in the near future.

 

The church renovation and general repairs was discussed.  Mr. Black (a local contractor) had conducted an extensive survey of repairs needed, but any repairs have been put on hold pending the hiring of a contractor to do the renovation work.  However, Gerald highly recommended that we have Mr. Black attempt to stop the water leak on the south side of church which is causing plaster damage along the length of the wall. 

 

The Committee highly recommended the opening of a separate “renovation” bank account to be used just for our renovation project.  Through January 31, 2004 $13,048 in donations have been received and deposited into the general fund and $9,242 in expenses has been paid from the general fund.  Therefore, the opening balance of the separate account would be $3,806.  All future donations and expenses would run through the new account.  Our parish has approximately $272,000 in funds in a separate account on deposit with the Diocese of Owensboro that will be withdrawn as needed for preliminary expenses of the renovation process.  John gave the Committee an overview of the latest proposal for renovations to the Church.

 

Paula Englert requested the opinion of the Committee on the possibility of stopping the car raffle at the annual picnic and replacing it with a different prize.  Concerns over liability issues, the care of the vehicle during the many months and the fact few winners take the vehicle (opting for cash instead) were expressed.  The Committee was generally agreeable with bringing cash back as the prize or prizes.  The Committee unanimously recommended changing the ticket face values from $1.00 to $5.00 for efficiency purposes.  Paula will take the Committee’s recommendations back to the Picnic Raffle Committee which will have to meet soon.

 

The next meeting date was set for Tuesday, March 23rd at 6:30.

 

Prepared and submitted by John Durbin